Icing!

This is what you do with leftover Gingerbread House icing! Thanks, Uncle Jer!

Gingerbread Houses!

Our last activity of Thanksgiving week was making Gingerbread Houses, we had fun and the kids loved it--maybe the start of another family tradition!

Bowling!!

Addie just loved the bowling balls--so cute!!

Ella had a little help!!

Jake really threw the ball down the lane! STRIKE!!

Amber and Jake--Addie had a fascination for the colorful bowling balls!

Addison has no time for pictures!

Thanksgiving week we went to Tavern Bowl with the kids! The pictures say it all!!

Ella's 4th Birthday

Cutest Girl!

Ella's Four!

Ella four years old, Dana young at heart!

Ella's birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year! We have had the pleasure of having all of Ella's four birthdays at our house. Thanksgiving week is a celebration all week long because we have Ella's birthday on the 24th, Dana's on the 25th and Amber, Ben's anniversary on the 26th and we also have to fit in our Thanksgiving festivities--busy and fun!

Jake's 9th Birthday

I am so behind blogging and feel as if I'm being such a neglectful something or other so here's to a little catching up! Jake is an official 9 year old as of November 7th....I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. I am so grateful to have such a smart, loving and fun grandson, and even more thankful that he loves to spend time with us. We really had such a fun summer together! I just love this boy! Jake and some of his buddies did Laser Tag for his birthday and Amber made him a really awesome cake (sorry no pics.)

11/11/11

Again I was only able to Title using my iPad--whats up, I don't know. Wowwzer it is 11/11/11, not sure what I think about this other than it's crazy with all of those 1's!!

Update!

I had planned to update my blog but so far I can only get a Title when using my new iPad---I guess this is someting I'll have to figure out. I must say that I'm pretty obssessed with my iPad, I love how convenient it is, you know like lounging on the sofa or in bed--e mails and facebook whenever and wherever I decide to be. My other new obssession is Pinterest, I think my blogging suffers because I have so much fun perusing Pinterest. If you haven't gone to the website DO, I highly recommend it, just be careful cause it is addicting!

And were Home!

Home Again-Home Again always sad when vacation ends!

Last Aloha

Aloha Maui until next year-cannot wait to return!

A little more Maui!

My Beach Boy Jake
How cute is Ella sitting on a giant branch of the Banyan Tree
Addie the little Beach Bunny poolside at the Ritz
Ivy out to dinner at Aloha Mixed Plate

Deep Sea Fishing

Jake piloting the boat

The fishermen!

Ben took Jake on a half day deep sea fishing trip--they didn't catch the big one but they had a great time trying!

Moose's for Breakfast!

Amber and Ivy

Back of Jer and Addie and Me and Sage

Ben's huge breakfast!

Jake and his hot chocolate

Ella and her hot chocolate!

Okay so here is the deal--my favorite breakfast spot on Maui is the Gazebo--love, love it--but it is always just so difficult to get in as the wait is forever! If it's only adults you can wait forever but when you have the little kiddos the wait would be impossible. So the next favorite breakfast spot is Moose's in Lahaina and it's a family tradition since we go there everytime we're in Maui!

Maui Ocean Center

Sage Addie and Jer

Ella

Ivy Ben and Sage

Jake

Family

Frogs and Geckos

Proud of his catch!

Gecko Whisperer!

While we were in Maui Jake loved to catch frogs at night outside our lanai, and he is really good at it. He will bring them in show everybody and then he lets them go! We also nicknamed him the Gecko Whisperer cause he can really catch the geckos! In the late afternoon out by the pool the geckos really come out and Jake would just pick them up and they would attach onto his shirt, they would stay with him for a while and they off they would go. Frogs and Geckos kept him entertained for hours!

Maui Family Vacay!

A day at the beach!

Happy to take a swim on our 1st day!

Good grief how many bags are there?

Excited to be on our way!

The whole family, minus Dana flew out to Maui on July 22nd and returned home on August 12th. Ben stayed until the 5th returning early for work. There were moments when I thought that maybe 3 weeks was to long--but now that I'm home I think I could have actually stayed longer! I love beautiful Maui and our condo in Kapalua. We have vacationed there since 1983 and I never get tired of it. Amber and her family haven't been there for three years so they were really loving it. The girls and myself talked of all the wonderful memories of past vacations in Maui--there have been many changes on the island but in most ways it stays the same BEAUTIFUL!

Needless to say our travel days were the most challenging of the trip--departure 5 adults 2 children 1 toddler and 1 infant = 4 large suitcases 2 large duffle bags 2 carseat bags and 2 strollers plus carry ons--good grief we were a small army! I am reminding myself right now way way over packed--next trip pack very little and carry on only--hummm, we'll see! I think everyone had a good time, maybe wish they would have done a little more or seen a little more, but just relaxing at the condo or hanging out at the beach or pool was pretty dang fun!!

4th of July

Waiting for the fireworks to start!
Little Ivy floats in the pool!
Happy swimmers!
Am's and her girls!
Not ready to get out of the pool yet!

Wow this was a crazy week! Amber and Ivy came down on Friday and Ben came down with Jake and Ella on Saturday night, and a flu bug came with them, not a great start to our 4th of July family week. They all survived it and Ivy didn't get it at all. We managed to get lots of swimming and hanging out together as a family in.

Camping at the Beach!

The beach house (aka the trailer)
Sadie Faith Addie and Ella
Sage and Addie
Beach Bunny Ella

While Ella was down Sage, Jer, Addie and myself went beach camping. We really had a great time, our Hartman cousins were camping also a few spaces from us so Ella had so much fun playing with Faith and Sadie. I haven't camped at the beach in years and have forgotten how much fun it is. We had pretty good weather and Ella loved jumping the waves.